134 HIS MAJESTY’S OPPONENT
when they encountered the man whom they had been taught for a de-
cade and a half to regard as a dangerous revolutionary. “En glish people
who met Bose for the first time,” wrote the Manchester Guardian, “were
impressed alike by his pleasant, quiet manner and the decisiveness with
which he discussed Indian affairs.”^145
On January 19, Bose left London for Prague, where he had a meeting
with President Edouard Benes. “Please buy the two watches in steel
about which you enquired,” Subhas had written to Emilie on Janu-
ary 16 from London, “the Diplomat no. C.K. 124 and the doctor’s
watch no. 651 Square—both Omega. The lady’s watch (Longines) you
cannot get there—I understand.” These were their wedding gifts, which
they would exchange before he returned to India. He asked her to meet
him at the Vienna airport on the morning of January 20, during his
brief stopover from Prague to Rome. He cabled again from Prague on
January 19: “Buy two watches meet aerodrome.” After their airport ren-
dezvous, he wrote to her from Rome on January 20 saying that he had
arrived safely and was on the verge of leaving for Naples. He wrote
again the next day from Athens: “I am writing to you again today be-
cause I have a little time in hand and because I shall have no time when
I reach India.” Asking her not to worry about “imaginary things” if he
was unable to write regularly from India, he continued on his eastward
flight.^146
After a night stop in Basra, Bose arrived in Karachi on January 23,
1938, his forty- first birthday. Upon arrival, he was “curiously asked” by
someone whether he was thinking of “entering into matrimony”; he
reportedly replied, “I have no time to think of that.”^147 Another night
halt in Jodhpur, and he was back in Calcutta on the morning of Janu-
ary 24. He sent two telegrams in quick succession to Emilie that day.
“Safe,” said the first; “heartfelt condolence,” said the second—Emilie’s
father had suddenly passed away. “I am terribly grieved,” Subhas wrote
to her on January 25, “to have the sad news of your father’s death.
Please let me know at once how this happened. It is so sudden! So aw-
ful!”^148 By this time, Subhas was in the tumult of India’s anticolonial
politics. He could do no more than express his sympathy from afar.
The call of public duty left little time for either private joy or pri-
vate grief.